The present invention relates to a currency system. In particular, but not exclusively, the invention relates to an automated teller machine (ATM) currency system.
Financial institutions provide ATMs to allow customers of the institutions to obtain cash (in the form of banknotes) in an unattended environment. These ATMs are interconnected by a network. ATM networks are managed to ensure that the ATMs are adequately stocked with currency and other consumables (such as printer paper), and to ensure that the total amount of cash remaining in and dispensed from each ATM matches the amount of cash put into each ATM.
Financial institutions either manage ATM networks themselves, or use third party ATM management centers (AMCs) to assist them with this task. In either case, the ATM manager (the financial institution or the third party AMC) typically instructs a cash-in-transit (CIT) company to convey cash to and from the ATMs. A CIT company uses armored vans to transport cash securely.
Each financial institution typically provides a CIT company with a large amount of banknotes that are securely stored in a vault in the CIT company's premises. The CIT company uses these banknotes to fill currency cassettes for loading into ATMs in the network.
The ATM manager typically provides a CIT company with a printed statement including replenishment instructions, such as: what ATMs in a network are to be replenished; when they are to be replenished; and with how much money each ATM is to be replenished. These printed statements are typically referred to as replenishment schedules, and are manually transmitted, for example by fax or email, from the ATM manager to the CIT company.
Once a CIT company has completed a replenishment operation, the CIT company sends a settlement notice to the ATM manager (typically via fax or email), indicating what ATMs were replenished, at what time each ATM was replenished, with how much cash each ATM was replenished, and how much cash remained in each ATM before replenishment.
The CIT company also periodically (typically daily) sends a report to the ATM manager about how much money has been removed from a vault, how much money has been added to a vault, and how much money remains in the vault. This report is referred to as a vault recap. When the amount of banknotes in the vault falls below a certain level, the financial institution issues a cash order to replenish the vault with banknotes.
The ATM manager uses the vault recap and the settlement notice to ensure that all of the cash in the currency network (the vault, armored cars, and ATMs) is accounted for.
This system has a number of disadvantages. It is difficult to track the movement of cash because the cash is located in a vault, in armored vans, and in ATMs. It is also difficult to determine the location of all the cash within the currency network; this makes it difficult to determine the optimum location of the cash. Having cash in non-optimum locations is a high cost for the financial institution that owns the cash, because of the interest paid by the financial institution for this cash, because this cash cannot be used to generate interest for the financial institution, and because it is very expensive to move large amounts of cash.
Accounting for all of the cash in the currency network is time consuming because of the amount of paper that has to be processed. If cash remains unaccounted for, it is difficult to determine where the cash disappeared due to the lack of a robust audit trail.